A trading card or collector card is a card, usually made out of cardboard or thick paper, which usually contains an image of a certain person, place or thing (fictional or real) and a short description of the picture, along with other text describing for example game features. There is wide variation among different types of collector cards as to the configuration of objects and the content on the card. Collector cards are traditionally associated with sports; football cards are especially well-known.
The packaging for these collector cards needs to fulfill specific requirements. These collector cards are usually retailed in package comprising a limited number of cards as opposed to a regular playing card set. Furthermore it is required that the retail packaging cannot be opened and closed without leaving traces in order to guarantee that the contents of the package was not altered before it is opened by the end consumer. Therefor a conventional packaging for a set of playing cards, usually in the form of a cardboard box that can be releasably opened, is not suitable for packaging such collector cards. Furthermore it is difficult, because of the conventional manufacturing process for introducing a set of playing cards into its packaging, there are lower limits to the number of cards that can be handled. The set of cards has to be introduced automatically into the preformed box shaped packaging through an open end at the top or the bottom and this can only be done reliably if this open end has certain minimum dimensions which correspond to the height of the stack of cards, such as for example about 20 mm.
A known type of packaging for collector cards, also called a flowpack, is a packaging for collector cards in a metallic film. The film is glued or thermo-sealed at the top and the bottom side as well as at the both lateral sides. Such packaging fulfils the above requirements, however it is delicate and there exists the risk of it being damaged inadvertently during manufacturing, display and handling. Furthermore tearing open the metallic film is not easy, the metallic film material is expensive and creates metallic waste. The metallic film packaging also needs to be pre-printed on dedicated printing machines before packaging the collector cards in it. U.S. Pat. No. 4,841,712 shows a method for manufacturing such a flow pack comprising collector cards. It is clear from this document that the throughput capacity for mass production of such packaging assemblies is limited especially because the packages need to be sealed, often by means of thermo-sealing or gluing in a direction transverse to the transport direction of the packages in order to seal of one protective pouch from the next. Furthermore this needs to be done in a way that is synchronised with the pre-printed content on the metallic film. These operations transverse to the transport direction of the manufacturing process and requiring delicate synchronisation limit the throughput capacity of such a manufacturing process and there exists the risk of damaging the collector cards, for example when they are not correctly aligned with the packaging.
These problems are partly solved by another type of packaging of collector cards comprising a cardboard packaging having a number of extractable cards with e.g. pictures of football players printed directly on the inner side of the cardboard packaging and surrounded for example by a perforated edge for easy extraction. The cardboard packaging is folded in two and at least one side is glued together to close the packaging such that the images on the extractable cards are not visible any more, the backside of the cards thus serving as a part of the outside of the packaging. Tearing off this closed side opens the packaging whereby the cards can be extracted along perforated edges.
The problem with this type of collector card packaging is that the cardboard packaging does not allow for a clean edge around the extractable cards as opposed to clean cut collector cards that are finished in the manufacturing plant. Furthermore luxurious quality collector cards are printed with a shiny foil-like quality which cannot be combined with features that allow easy extraction such as for example perforated edges. A further problem is that damage to this packaging directly results in damage to the extractable cards that are part of this packaging.
A further card packaging is known from EP0028693. It describes a card packaging as mentioned in the preamble of claim 1.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a packaging for collector cards that overcomes the problems of the prior art, allows for a more efficient manufacturing process and does not require a special purpose printing process and is well suited for a limited number of collector cards.